Great turnout last night for the Haight/ Fillmore fire benefit to raise money for those 31 people displaced by last week's massive fire which also displaced us, FFDG, from 248 Fillmore along with Wallgreens, Three Twins, and Estellas Sandwiches. It sounds like over $7,000 was raised!

Rumors abound by the cause of the fire/ about how long it will be till residents and businesses can move back in, but none of it sounds promising.

Won't go into the cause (rumors at this point), but the talk of how long to get back in- Well, the building manager told us 6 months of paper work and 2 years to rebuild. Ross Mirkarimi's aid Vallie Brown told us that she's going to look into getting the businesses in there soon... So, it sounds like it could be anywhere from a month to two years. Not a whole lot of solid info at this point.

The good news is that it looks like FFDG has a temporary space for the next 4-6 months till we figure out our permanent home. Details on that soon.

Martin, owner of the Vapor Room, buys us a "feel better" beer... Check those beer expiration dates there at the Peacock Lounge. We had a Becks which expired in 2008.

On Tuesday at around 4pm we were working away on the site/ answering emails when a crazed lady pounds on our door and yells, "the building is on fire. Get out!". Unfortunately, this is the second time we've heard this yelled at us while working at Fecal Face.

Thinking it was going to be another similar grab a few things, stand back while the SFFD do their thing, and in 30 minutes, we're back inside and back to work. Not this time. Not this time at all. We're out of the gallery and space there at 248 Fillmore for who knows how long till we're back in our beloved space next to our friends at Estela's and Three Twins.

Anyone got a empty store front we can rent till ours in back and running? Please feel free to let us know: john(at)fecalface.com

Thinking we were possibly over reacting, we grad Damon Soule's paintings from the gallery walls and quickly try to figure out where we can take them as screaming fire trucks race to the scene. Luckily, our friend Mike Midden lives across the street and let us store the paintings there while we figure things out... Weird bangs and explosions above our heads/ breaking glass around us, we frantically grabbed art, laptops, cameras, etc.

Flames were shooting 6 feet out the corner apartment's window. Distant/ nearby sirens continued to descend to our corner of Haight and Fillmore. At one point, it became clear there was no going back inside as firemen broke down the door next to ours that leads to the stairway. A healthy crowd builds behind the yellow caution tape. We stand nervously watching the fire rage and build. Thick black smoke billows from the roof as the late afternoon breeze begins sweeping the flames across the building from one side to the next.

Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

Watching the flames lick the next building over, we hope that the massive amounts of water would somehow filter away from our ceilings as gallons and gallons of toxic fire water make their way down from the top floors.

After holding our breath for 30 minutes, we know there's nothing we can do but fret. It's determined that a strong beer is needed to calm frayed nerves. We had beers at Cafe Soleil where next to us sat a resident of the building also calming his nerves with a beer. We chat and hope that the fire/ smoke/ water damage escaped our places. It wasn't the case, at least for us.

Tip toeing around a web of fire hoses we avoid the raining water and enter the gallery where a rush of heat and smoke stink past our noses. Water is poring down in umpteen places from the ceiling as we trek across a foot of water on the floor in search for items/ art that may still be safe. Our cabinet contents were dry. Travis Millard's and Mel Kadel's work, which was probably in the only part of the back area that avoided water, was untouched, thank God (we built those shelves where the work sat just a month ago saving us from having to claim their art as a loss).

Thanks to Harley and everyone at Upper Playground and neighbors who formed a human chain to move items and art from the drenched gallery to Upper Playground's back room. A lot was saved and items that were ruined by the water damage can be replaced. Our disappointment by having to work from home is nothing compared to those who not only lost their apartments but their personal items as well. Thankfully no one was injured.. Animals were rescued and all will move on. We just hope that the contractors are building ninjas so we can get back in soon and we can get back to hosting shows.

Hopefully we're going to back in 248 Fillmore very soon... Anyone got a empty store front we can rent till ours in back and running? Please feel free to let us know: john(at)fecalface.com
Thankfully we purchased a good insurance plan when we moved in which covers fire damage like this. SO glad we kept up with the payments.

That night My and Adam took our gallery plant Stretch home while the dust settles.

I'm not sure how many people are lucky enough to have The San Francisco Giants 3 World Series trophies put on display at their work for the company's employees to enjoy during their lunch break, but that's what happened the other day at Deluxe. So great.

When works of art become commodities and nothing else, when every endeavor becomes “creative” and everybody “a creative,” then art sinks back to craft and artists back to artisans—a word that, in its adjectival form, at least, is newly popular again. Artisanal pickles, artisanal poems: what’s the difference, after all? So “art” itself may disappear: art as Art, that old high thing. Which—unless, like me, you think we need a vessel for our inner life—is nothing much to mourn.

Hard-working artisan, solitary genius, credentialed professional—the image of the artist has changed radically over the centuries. What if the latest model to emerge means the end of art as we have known it? --continue reading

"[Satire] is important because it brings out the flaws we all have and throws them up on the screen of another person," said Turner. “How they react sort of shows how important that really is.” Later, he added, "Charlie took a hit for everybody." -read on

NYC --- A new graffiti abatement program put forth by the police commissioner has beat cops carrying cans of spray paint to fill in and cover graffiti artists work in an effort to clean up the city --> Many cops are thinking it's a waste of resources, but we're waiting to see someone make a project of it. Maybe instructions for the cops on where to fill-in?

The NYPD is arming its cops with cans of spray paint and giving them art-class-style lessons to tackle the scourge of urban graffiti, The Post has learned.

Shootings are on the rise across the city, but the directive from Police Headquarters is to hunt down street art and cover it with black, red and white spray paint, sources said... READ ON

SAN FRANCISCO --- The Headlands Center for the Arts is preparing for their largest fundraiser of the year set to go down on June 4th at SOMArts here in the city. Art auction, food, drinks, live music, etc and all for helping to support a great institution up in the Marin Headlands. ~details

ABOUT HEADLANDSHeadlands Center for the Arts provides an unparalleled environment for the creative process and the development of new work and ideas. Through a range of programs for artists and the public, we offer opportunities for reflection, dialogue, and exchange that build understanding and appreciation for the role of art in society.

We haven't been featuring many interviews as of late. Let's change that up as we check in with a few local San Francisco artists like Kevin Earl Taylor here whom we studio visited back in 2009 (PHOTOS & VIDEO). It's been awhile, Kevin...

If you like guns and boobs, head on over to the Shooting Gallery; just don't expect the work to be all cheap ploys and hot chicks. With Make Stuff by Peter Gronquist (Portland) in the main space and Morgan Slade's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow in the project space, there is plenty spectacle to be had, but if you look just beyond it, you might actually get something out of the shows.

Fifty24SF opened Street Anatomy, a new solo show by Austrian artist Nychos a week ago last Friday night. He's been steadily filling our city with murals over the last year, with one downtown on Geary St. last summer, and new ones both in the Haight and in Oakland within the last few weeks, but it was really great to see his work up close and in such detail.

Congrats on our buddies at Needles and Pens on being open and rad for 11 years now. Mission Local did this little short video featuring Breezy giving a little heads up on what Needles and Pens is all about.

Matt Wagner recently emailed over some photos from The Hellion Gallery in Tokyo, who recently put together a show with AJ Fosik (Portland) called Beast From a Foreign Land. The gallery gave twelve of Fosik's sculptures to twelve Japanese artists (including Hiro Kurata who is currently showing in our group show Salt the Skies) to paint, burn, or build upon.

Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne played host to a huge group exhibition a couple of weeks back, with "Gold Blood, Magic Weirdos" Curated by Melbourne artist Sean Morris. Gold Blood brought together 25 talented painters, illustrators and comic artists from Australia, the US, Singapore, England, France and Spain - and marked the end of the Magic Weirdos trilogy, following shows in Perth in 2012 and London in 2013.

San Francisco based Fecal Pal Jeremy Fish opened his latest solo show Hunting Trophies at LA's Mark Moore Gallery last week to massive crowds and cabin walls lined with imagery pertaining to modern conquest and obsession.

Well, John Felix Arnold III is at it again. This time, he and Carolyn LeBourgios packed an entire show into the back of a Prius and drove across the country to install it at Superchief Gallery in NYC. I met with him last week as he told me about the trip over delicious burritos at Taqueria Cancun (which is right across the street from FFDG and serves what I think is the best burrito in the city) as the self proclaimed "Only overweight artist in the game" spilled all the details.

Ever Gold opened a new solo show by NYC based Henry Gunderson a couple Saturday nights ago and it was literally packed. So packed I couldn't actually see most of the art - but a big crowd doesn't seem like a problem. I got a good laugh at what I would call the 'cock climbing wall' as it was one of the few pieces I could see over the crowd. I haven't gotten a chance to go back and check it all out again, but I'm definitely going to as the paintings that I could get a peek at were really high quality and intruiguing. You should do the same.

The paintings in the show are each influenced by a musician, ranging from Freddy Mercury, to Madonna, to A Tribe Called Quest and they are so stylistically consistent with each musician's persona that they read as a cohesive body of work with incredible variation. If you told me they were each painted by a different person, I would not hesitate to believe you and it's really great to see a solo show with so much variety. The show is fun, poppy, very well done, and absolutely worth a look and maybe even a listen.

With rising rent in SF and knowing mostly other young artists without capitol, I desired a way to live rent free, have a space to do my craft, and get to see more of the world. Inspired by the many historical artists who have longed similar longings I discovered the beauty of artist residencies. Lilo runs Adhoc Collective in Vienna which not only has a fully equipped artists creative studio, but an indoor halfpipe, and private artist quarters. It was like a modern day castle or skate cathedral. It exists in almost a utopic state, totally free to those that apply and come with a real passion for both art and skateboarding

I just wanted to share with you a piece I recently finished which took me 4 years to complete. Titled "How To Lose Yourself Completely (The September Issue)", it consists of a copy of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine (the issue they made the documentary about) with all faces masked with a sharpie, and everything else entirely whited out. 840 pages of fun. -Bryan Schnelle

Jeremy Fish opens Hunting Trophies tonight, Saturday April 5th, at the Los Angeles based Mark Moore Gallery. The show features new work from Fish inside the "hunting lodge" where viewers climb inside the head of the hunter and explore the history of all the animals he's killed.

Beautiful piece entitled "The Albatross and the Shipping Container", Ink on Paper, Mounted to Panel, 47" Diameter, by San Francisco based Martin Machado now on display at FFDG. Stop in Saturday (1-6pm) to view the group show "Salt the Skies" now running through April 19th. 2277 Mission St. at 19th.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to quit my job, move out of my house, leave everything and travel again. So on August 21, 2013 I pushed a canoe packed full of gear into the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, along with four of my best friends. Exactly 100 days later, I arrived at a marina near the Gulf of Mexico in a sailboat.

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